Besides the three main priorities under Horizon 2020 - Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges, various other programmes offer interesting funding opportunities for public or private research organisations or enterprises:

Fast Track to Innovation

FTI provides funding for close to market, business driven projects for small consortia of three to five entities in any field. The objective of this measure is to encourage companies to participate in Horizon 2020, especially those that have never participated before.

How to participate

Proposals must be submitted by consortia. They comprise three to five legal entities that are established in at least three different EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon 2020.

Proposals must be "business-driven". They should give promising innovation ideas the last push before entering the market. Substantial industry involvement in FTI actions will be mandatory. Involvement of industry partners should help the solution be taken up by the market more quickly. "Industry involvement" means that at least 60% of the budget is allocated to industry participants in the consortium, or that a certain quota of industry participants is met (two in a consortium of three to four partners; three in a consortium of five partners).

No thematic restrictions, a continuously open call

Any topic is eligible. The FTI Pilot will be implemented in 2015 and 2016 with a total budget of € 200 million (€ 100 million per year) across the Horizon 2020 priority "Societal Challenges" and the specific objective "Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies (LEITs)".

Proposals can be submitted at any time! The pilot will be implemented through one common and continuously open call. Proposals will be evaluated and ranked and funding decisions taken after three cut-off dates each year.